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Fastpitch: Oly champs eye districts, state

Domination and a pure team effort led the Wolves fastpitch team to another Olympic League title this season. The Wolves finished 16-0 in the league and 17-0 overall.

Coach Mike McFarlen said the title was one of their three goals — win the title, win districts and go to state.

“Anything that happens after that is a bonus,” he said.

Through the season, the girls down the lineup have been lights out with the top seven hitters batting over .500.

Makayla Bentz won 15 games for the Wolves and threw an astounding 85 strikeouts with a 0.41 earned run average, followed by Melissa Lewis who won the remaining games.

McFarlen said when he meets with the league on May 14, it’s going to be hard for him not to write his whole team down for first-team considerations.

“It’s hard to argue against them,” he said.

This weekend the team looks to the new Olympic League Softball Tournament on May 11, a doubleheader in Bremerton where they’ll either play Olympic, or North Kitsap and North Mason who play each other this week, depending on a game played today.

The purpose of the tournament is to decide the seeding going into districts and to replace the subdistricts tournament.

McFarlen said he opposed the tournament because their undefeated season could lead to losing their top seeding and/or possibly losing a player to injury.

The No. 1 seeds also go to districts with a first round bye and the winner in the second round receives an automatic berth in the 2A state playoffs.

The Wolves’ biggest competition is Port Angeles (13-2), a team McFarlen expects to see in the league tournament championship. The Roughriders nearly pulled off a win in Sequim with the Wolves narrowly winning 6-5 in eight innings on April 10. Sequim responded, powering in a win 9-0 in Port Angeles on April 24.

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